In that case, when somebody's like literally their their home is at Jeopardy, like everybody's super busy. So, like, how do we have a lifeline to get somebody out to help build a life that is chasing curiosities and that it's fun every day for at least a minute? I have some sort of fun. 92% of our dollars from the neighborside renew the next year. We have so many awesome contractors. What is the coolest story of a contractor?
This is living the dream and, you know, growing entrepreneurship and being part of it. From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hooser State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. If you're looking for a good Indiana day trip this fall, put Jackson County on your list. You can spend the morning hiking through the fall colors, check out some of the area's history, grab lunch at one of the local restaurants, and still have plenty more to explore before heading home. And if you want a reason to make the trip in October, the Seymour Oktoberfest is back October 1st through the 3rd with 3 days of food, live entertainment, arts, and crafts.
Plus, a whole lot more going on in downtown Seymour. Jackson County is one of those places that's perfect when you just want to get in the car and go somewhere for the day. Plan your visit, find things to do, and see what's coming up at Jackson County. com. Now, let's get into the episode. Now, we have an incredibly fun episode today.
Dan Hanneran has been a mentor of mine for a long time now. And many people don't know it, but Dan was the final voice in my ear that convinced me to go allin on entrepreneurship. Without his guidance, who knows if we'd be here today sharing the mic. So, in this special episode, we're going to start it off by opening up the floor for Dan to ask me questions about what we've been building, what we've been doing here. Then, we're going to catch up with what him and the Neighbor Serve team have been doing over the past year. learn about all the the new markets and and ways they are serving neighbors here in Indiana and then we're going to round out just shooting the breeze about all things Indiana.
I am uh I'm honored to be joined by a great friend Dan. Welcome in. Glad to be here Nate. It's fun to watch you build. People forget Dan was a uh the connecting glue that brought Pat Sullivan on and that was like one of our most widely regarded people loved hearing the ins and outs of Pat Sullivan and what he's built with Sullivan's hardware. So, thank you for making that interest.
He's an He's an easy talk. Never boring. Never. I He still does. Is it 3 hours every Saturday? Mhm.
And he never runs out of things to talk about. He goes live 3 hours every Saturday on the radio. Old stuff. That's wild, dude. Well, I'm really excited for this to open the floor to talk to to turn the mic over to you, of course. So, you are now for the next, you know, 10, 15 minutes, however long, you're the host.
That's dangerous. So, welcome to Dan's show. Yeah. Well, I mean, you got uh so many people listening to you and I think you do an amazing job. telling everybody else's story and you never get a chance to share your own. So like I've had a front row seat to watch you build this thing from like you and an idea into the media empire that you you have today.
So just first Nate like like like why start your own business cuz like if I rewind the clock you were at Powder Keg building community. We crossed paths cuz we were both in the the the local tech scene and and then you're like man I'm going to I I really think I'm going to do this on my own. When did you know that you wanted run your own business and why did you decide that that was your path? Oh man. Well, I I knew that I wanted to run my own business long ago. Like when I was a little kid.
I don't know, just like a non-traditional path. Like going and working for someone in I don't know, maybe I just have a problem with authority or whatever. Like like getting getting bossed around is just not necessarily for me. Um, but I didn't really know what it was. And I kept waiting for like some light bulb moment where I'm going to have my billion-dollar idea. And I had about 50 of them and tried side hustled my way through, you know, all of college, all I mean a lot of high school, uh, postgrad.
I would try this, tinker on this. I launched about a million businesses. Well, I I remember one in particular and and and I'm just now remembering this, but I had my mom recording voice memos, right? You had done something. I think maybe your grandma tell me about that business. Oh, it was called memory bank.
It still is. Uh, it doesn't. No, no. No customers anymore. I was between though. Again, like I was between content and memory bank.
I still think it's a great idea. This was at the beginning of AI. Uh, and it sent you a weekly prompt. It was awesome. Oh, it's such a like recover mom's messages. I can I can go find them.
I have them somewhere. But it was essentially like you realized that when I think it was your grandma that had passed away. So it came from when my mom passed away. So when my mom got diagnosed with cancer, I gave her a notebook, just like a line, a completely empty notebook, and I said, "Write your story." But that was it. And I didn't check in until she was gone.
And so then I like went and looked at the notebook and it was like, "It's a Tuesday and we had spaghetti." And like it it just wasn't this like prophetic wisdom that I was hoping for. there's some good stuff, you know, there's a few really good passages, but it wasn't this prophetic wisdom that I was like this family heirloom that I was going to pass on to my children one day. And so I was like, well, I can either one like complain and stew that it wasn't fair and I'm like or look at the thing like what happened? Well, imagine if someone just handed you a notebook today and said, tell me your story like write your life and didn't ask you any questions, didn't like tell you what to put. Like a life is a a lot to fit within, you know, a couple pages.
And so I had another chance. So my mom, my grandma, and myself all live together. Like that was like we were like when I would come home for summers through college, like we were just like inseparable. And so with grandma, she was still living at that point. She was like still very with it mentally. And I said, I'm going to redo this.
She had not been like sick or anything, but I was like, I'm going to redo this. And instead of just giving her a thing and telling her to write, I asked her 52 pointed questions and she would sit down and write uh every week for a year. Yep. She would write about I mean I asked like this is again preai. I wanted to know about like what was the house like that you grew up in? What did your when your family got the an automobile like how did that change your life?
She talked about riding the bus when she got into high school. all of these pieces of life. Being a mother, what's your prized possession? Like why is that? This was really your first interview, right? Your first content.
Yes. I learned that kind of set the stage for like meaningful questions that lead to I learned everything I learned. I learned everything I learned about content and interviewing and podcasting from my grandmother. Cool. Like not the nuts and bolts and the execution, right? She was 97 years old.
But sitting down, we would So my mom had passed away. I was I'd still finished up that year into the summer living with my grandma and we kind of had two choices. Like we would eat dinner at 4:30. We would, you know, get done at 5:30, 5:00 and we would turn on Jeopardy and we would sit there and we either like sit in silence and watch Jeopardy. Yeah. Or like watch Jeopardy but also talk.
Sure. And if I asked her, if I asked the same three questions, which I feel like most people ask her grandma, where it's like, "How have you been?" or "What was for dinner last week?" Like, "What have you been doing?" It's like she's 97. She doesn't leave the house that much, you know?
But when when I was forced to sit there and actually start to like peel back the layers, like she was a farmer's wife. On the surface, you're like, "Okay, so she raised kids and made food." But then I started to realize that when my grandpa was like growing his farm, growing his business, she was like the bookkeeper and the secretary. Like people would call in and she was she was running this thing behind the scenes. I learned about her taking a cross-country train trip to visit her college roommate cuz she went to one year of college to study bookkeeping and she went all the way to like South Dakota. It likeing it's the these insane stories and we put it together in a book and then I felt like after I read this book I was like more people need to feel this.
And so I figured out how to productize it. And I remember you would give me my mom just had to talk into her phone and and it was a story. So that that was your journey. Like when did you decide that it was get in and not what was the name of it? Uh memory bank. Memory bank and not memory bank.
So like I can tell you still like deeply care about that and like you've got to make these trade-offs as a so much time in a day. How did you choose this? This was the thing. Um I at that point so like I have no shortage of ideas. I have literally an infinite amount. I could, you know, think of ideas, but I was I was like slightly working on a bunch of different side hustles.
Like we had bat hats. I remember that show. We had like for bats. Yeah. Absolutely. It's still a great All of these on their own could be It's just execution, right?
You just It's just ideas don't matter, execution does, right? Exactly. And I was like, you know, giving I had a full-time job. I was working on bad hats. I was like investing in real estate. I was doing memory bank like I had and I was coaching wrestling like I literally had like so many like it's not like your life is any less busy now it's just different things you were just constantly doing yes and I had started to get a little bit of traction on content and I think that that's just a product of doing interesting things and like documenting the process of doing interesting things and it was the one where I felt like um I was being pulled the most you know like entrepreneurship's hard in any any stage, any business, any industry, any vertical, it's hard.
But for me in content, it was like, oh, people are asking for more. People are asking to sponsor us. People are like like I So, so your curiosity essentially and and your sense of adventure, you're going out and doing interesting things. You're just happening to record them and people care and then the sponsors come. Yeah. Like the big one was the Indy500 the first year where I like documented the process of buying the truck whole thing and by the end of it I was like I had made 10 grand.
People were asking to do more like what are you doing next? Like and I was like oh and then I realized if I was going to quit my job and do this thing that I needed to get laser focused on that. Sure. Like I had kind of like, you know, done the liberal arts kind of the liberal arts MBA, I'll say, of like dabbling in this and doing a little bit of that, doing a little bit of that. But like I had to dedicate my life, like literally everything to learning the state of Indiana better than anyone possibly could, traveling everywhere, becoming a the foremost expert, and granted I'm still not there yet. I'm always learning, always like trying to be better.
But you're intersecting. I think this is this is key, right? because it takes so much energy to run a company and build a company, but you're able to intersect that with things that you're already curious about and already doing, right? You've intersected your work work life, like people always talk about balance and there's only so many hours in the day. So, we can work in those intersections. I think you've done a tremendous job of like, you know, paddling the White River and going to the 500 and and going to these concerts and everything else that you're going to do, seeing all these local companies that you care about that just happens to be work.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I am like I'm not like a work life balance guy. Yeah. Like it's it's not like open the laptop at 8 and shut it at 5.
It's like I have such a great like I'm building the life that I want to live for forever. Right. Similar to you're talking about building the business that you want to run and it's the same thing. It's like I love getting on the mic and talking to people. Yep. Like I love doing wild cookie adventures and making content that moves people that inspires them or makes them more curious or gets them off their couch and out into the into the world.
Right. We talked about Pat. He always said, "What what can I do that gets people out of the pajamas to come into the store?" Right? How can you get people out there? So like do you have like when you set out, did you have a vision for this thing?
Like did you have a a a media company that you you wanted to emulate? Was there anything out there that you were just like, "Hey man, I'm building towards that." Uh, I it's a little bit of like the morning brew sort of model. Um, like they're more newsy, I would say, and we're more storytelling. A little bit of the the morning brew vibe with like the bar stool sports delivery method. Granted, we're not like the same kind of content like they're pretty frat culture like piece.
Ours is more like educational, informational, like but it's fun. Yeah. Put your own spin on it. Sure. I always said like uh the vibe of us is like uh the first the first guy on the dance floor at the company Christmas party, you know, like the person who's going to like you're still professional. You're still wearing your suit, but you might be like two buttons down.
But it's like you're not loosen the tie up. Yeah. You're not like losing your job though when you walk back in on Monday, but it's like the person that every team, every organization needs, right? Because if not, it's just like a really awkward Christmas party where everyone just like kind of stands around. But it's like we're the the catal to go like hey no we're going to make this a party like commit to it and let's go. So you've got you've got like your entrepreneurial journey there's kind of two like uh cliffs to jump off if you will that that first come to mind.
One is to to like you know go all in like to to quit your day job and bet on yourself and then the second is when you hire that first employee and now somebody else is sort of relying on you right and so like talk talk through that like we talked through the first um you know how did that go like when did you take that first leap of faith and then as I've watched you grow and add the team uh who was first employee and how'd you know it was right time to hire okay so I remember we're at Java house and I had just been kicking this around we had just finished the Indie 500 or we were right around the time of the case and I was just talking to all the smart people that I know that have like made this jump at some point where it was like leave comfortability, leave a paycheck and just go try to build something. And it was like honestly looking at it noneotionally and logically. I I remember just like literally talking like math with you.
It was like my mortgage is 1,400 bucks. That's right. Like you had your number that you needed to cover. I totally remember that. And and I was like and I I literally said it the number and Dan was looking at me and it like it just like all clicked. You were like that's the number that you were It was like 2,000 bucks.
No kids, no wife. Yeah. You had a home? Yes. I had a mortgage. It was like literally I needed to make like $2,000 a month to uh to like, you know, be positive.
And Dan was like, "Okay, I will pay you $2,500 a month to be marketing for us." He literally I He had no idea. You had no idea what we were getting. We had no marketing. I didn't even know what we did at that point in time. Yeah.
But it was just like Yes. I I believe that you being involved with us is going to help down the road. Like do it. Y and I think it took maybe three months. So like now I'm looking at like, you know, as we're growing and stuff and it was like $7,500. Like that was the number that I was like so alarmed by.
Like how will I ever make $7,500 to pay the mortgage? And so I'm going to go back to the second and hiring an employee here in a minute, but like going back to that moment, knowing everything that you know on the journey now, I'm sure there's things you would change. Would you would you do it again? If you go give advice to yourself 3 years ago, I would have done it way sooner. Way sooner. Well, maybe not.
Okay. I do think that it was actually like you don't talk about divine intervention, God's plan. Like we had just done a huge campaign with the Indy500. I had gotten into podcasting like Powder had created amazing opportunities for me. Like that's how we got connected because with just the the community that Hunkler has helped cultivate like people respond when if you're a powder employee and you like you actually have something of value to offer executives. Yep.
And so like people would respond to me. I got to meet them and like I got to show off a little bit of my personality. They got to meet me and people just like were invested. Yeah. So like if I could go back I think I would try to figure it out as like like coming out of college. Like I think a lot of people say go get experience which for me it's worked out.
I did five years in corporate not even really corporate because powder keg is very chill and Apex benefits also very chill. So I did five years like in the professional workforce and then made the jump. I love to see uh kids who graduate from college and already have something kind of going and just go all in on that because when you're 22, you literally need no money to survive. Yeah. Like it, you know, baked potatoes and ramen and live in your parents basement if you want to, right? So, and I think that the other piece was I never in those first five years chased the large salary, right?
And so it was easy to give up a very entry- level salary because I was already making nothing, you know, like I wasn't making hundreds of thousands of dollars. I think that's where as you start to go up, it becomes harder to leave. Yep. And so for me, it was perfect though. I had I had gotten I had taken enough swings in entrepreneurship to know what positive momentum like truly positive viral momentum felt like and I had to had your side hustles with bat hats and with memory bank. Yeah.
Yeah. And like I I remember we had had it for a little bit with Bat Hats where like it was Christmas maybe like 21 or 22 where we sold like $40,000 worth of bat hats before black before Christmas. It was just working. Yeah. And then like there was a huge update for iOS and our Facebook ads stopped converting and like it just became really different. But it's like if that momentum would have stayed like there would have been a moment there too.
Sure. And so I like it doesn't does it matter like that. I guess I guess what I'm kind of getting at is like if it was bad hats or memory bank or get in like the entrepreneurial journey I think is what you enjoy following your curiosities. I imagine you're having a little bit more fun and connection with your life and this stuff than maybe than maybe with bad hats. But like what are you what are you working towards? Like if if if cuz your life is going to change, right?
You're going to you know maybe you have a family, maybe you know just things change as you get older. Like when you're old like me, you have different priorities. So I'm just curious like how can how can you grow and morph with this business and and how can like how can it be the tool for you that like helps you lead a really fulfilling life? Yeah. That's such a good question. Um, because you made it up, right?
And you don't want to be like, you don't you don't want to just have have the business, you know, be be in charge. Like, you made it up and and and so how does it serve the people that you're with and yourself and and your own goals? Yeah, I think that uh it's been fun to see the platform, like the megaphone that we have for the state of Indiana grow. And so like we just did we put out like uh we sold some merch and raised over $2,000 in like three days for the flood, right? Like for the flood for flood relief. Yeah.
We raised, you know, I think it was 2500 bucks and and I posted a video. It's amazing. And so it's like one video can, you know, like it wasn't like we were cramming it down people's throats like you have to sell blah blah blah blah and it was $100 minimum order. And so it's like hey we can do that in a day. It's like what other things can we do and make a huge impact. Yeah.
Like uh I I don't know. I just think that we're positioned well. I'm I'm going to be 30 next year. Yeah. So I mean to myself a decade ago like 30 seems old but to me right now I'm like 30 seems young. Seems young to me.
And so it's like I don't know building this like I love this. I could sit in here. I do Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, three days. Sometimes I do I've done three episodes in a day. Wow. And I just love it.
It's so much fun to talk to people, to learn about them. It's so much fun to chat and and I think that that's one piece of it. Like a lot of people want to start a podcast because they love to talk. But like the fact that we keep getting feedback people listen to shows and are like, "Wow, that's really well done." I think that what I love the most is if you see our videos, it's uh there's like it's fun, it's fast, it's like, you know, there's there's exciting points to it, but when you come listen to the podcast, there is some really insightful conversations that happen in here that are deeper than what uh our stereotype might be, deeper than what my stereotype might be. Like if you ever sat you have obviously if if listeners out there have sat down had a conversation with me like I'm just I mean voraciously curious and so we I think that's your superpower.
Yes. And so if I can just keep building a life where I get to be curious and like go learn new things. But like you've got now the sports podcast and I got to imagine in your head you're kind of like oh I want to go build that someday. But then you only have so much time and so you hire to to to get the things off the ground that you you want to exist, right? And like Dom for instance on the sports podcast, he just cares way more about sports than I do. Sure.
Even though you're a wrestling coach and you're a sports fan, he isn't that it like I love I love coaching. Obviously I love the sport of wrestling. It's great. Yeah. Um, I love like coaching for like all the other like I mean I love it for the sport and the intangibles that come along with it because my coaches just gave so much to me and poured into my life and and like that's a lot of the reason to coach is just like the like we're creating great wrestlers but we're also creating like great young men that are going to go change the world and I truly believe that. That's what fires me about coaching.
Like Dom loves stats and numbers and highlights and like he is as obsessed as I am with the state of Indiana, he is that obsessed with sports. Yeah. And like I can help him guide along what we've done to grow our channel, get sponsors, do the whole thing. And like that show is going to take off and probably like the pace of growth. It will take him way less than two years to get to where I am. Sure.
Cuz people love sports. Yeah. Like it's a different topic, but repeating the model and and you know building on the relationships you already have with sponsors and and Yeah. And then I get to keep doing this. So that's how that's how it grows. Yeah.
Other topics, other curiosities, other sections of the audience. I think that uh yeah, I mean potentially other states like seeing if it works if you can find the right people in other places that are obsessed with their homes. Like there's a whole Sure. But it's I I just like laser focus. You we just watched a video of Mr. Beast, right?
He wrote what he made is hi myself in 10 years. Sure. And was like I hope that I have a million subscribers on YouTube. And so he so he recorded this and then he he didn't release it. You just told me about this because I'm in you know I'm not on I'm not on social media. I'm an old man.
2016 he recorded a video. He had 6,000 subscribers and he said hi me in 10 years. I hope you have a million subscribers and are doing YouTube as a job. Yeah. Hopefully you've probably graduated college and hopefully you're doing YouTube as a job. 10 years later he has 515 million subscribers.
The largest crazy personality on YouTube. And it was a decade. Maybe we could just wrap this up with a hi Nate in 10 years as we get to the end of this. Yeah. And maybe we'll have that many followers. Yeah.
Right. It's like, okay, wait, let's do it. We'll put it right here in the center. This is uh this is both of us have to do it. Okay. Both of us have to do Hi.
Hi, Nate and Dan in 10 years. Yeah. Yeah. So, hi Nate and Dan in 10 years. Uh I hope that you are still creating Nate, whatever it might be. Uh I hope you're still creating content.
I said you're I hope you're still hosting a podcast. Hope you're still chasing the entrepreneurial dream. Um I hope that whatever it is, you're having fun, you're growing your family and have taken other steps of, you know, becoming a parent and doing all that stuff. Um, I hope that you have made a lasting impact in the state of Indiana that will reverberate through generations to come one decade from now in 2036. Oh man. And I hope that we, you know, maybe have bought a lakehouse up somewhere in northern Indiana and get to spend weekends in the summer up there.
I love it. Oh man, that was really good. Hi Dan, in 10 years. Hi Dan, in 10 years. I hope that uh the family is the center of what you're doing. I hope you're living in the log cabin in Bloomington.
Um, maybe by that point you got some grandbabies, but you're still right. I'm I'm I'll be 58, right, in 10 years, you know? May maybe maybe that's a little early, but but nonetheless, family is the center of what you're doing. I sure hope you're you're still creating. I think that's what makes you happy. I don't care if you're building a trail.
I don't care if you're building a company. I'd love to be the founder of Neighbor Serve with a team just rocking this business, right? and having local home service clubs across the country, boosting all the entrepreneurs and the local service companies uh helping people get jobs done, but but they're smarter people than you and and you've passed the reigns maybe by 10 years, but you still get to call yourself the founder and and and show up and and and and help. Um I think that would be a really good life as I kind of think about the last chapter and uh Yep. Wow. Okay.
One last thing for the us in 10 years. Yeah. in a decade, what would your wildest dream look like? Like if if the next decade was literally all aces, everything came went crazy. You know, honestly, I think I just described it. I don't I don't I don't need like a Lamborghini.
Like, I just want my F-150 in the woods and some freedom to explore curiosities and try to still make an impact. Do you know what I mean? Like I as a young man, I probably would have some wilder aspirations. I mean, I'd like to get on a plane and travel a bit. Um, and do all those things, too. But just, uh, just having a place where my family wants to come and hang out and find me, that means I found a good spot.
How about you? Wow. Uh, 10 years from now, if if everything outpaced my wildest dreams, uh, this podcast would be bigger than Joe Rogan. Yeah. If everything was like cra like this would be the biggest platform that was spreading curiosity and life and vibrance to the world and putting more fun into people's lives. Heck yeah.
Maybe like a mixture of Mr. Beast and Joe Rogan. It was just like if they had a baby we we had a plat Yeah. It would be me. If Joe Rogan and Mr. Beast had a child, it would be this, right?
And we were just like I think that that is like a wild goal to have. is like I just have have figured out how to build a life that is chasing curiosities. Yep. And that is fun. Like no matter what it is, every day for at least a minute I have some sort of fun largely way more than one minute. Right.
And I think so many people like time just like sucks all the fun out of people's lives and they become like a like an accountant for a firm that doesn't care about them and they just punch the clock and the weekend or living for the Yeah. living for retirement and it's like if you could here's a question. If money wasn't a factor if somebody dropped if you win the lottery would you would you what would what would happen to I would make videos and host a podcast. I would literally do this like I love it. I would just create content. Yes.
Like I would probably run more. I might like take like funnier swings at videos. Sure. Sure. You know, like I might which like we can do that. We do do that.
We're doing a video. That's what's awesome about a mar like an ultramarathon in Colorado. Like I would I would literally do this. Like if I could dream up a job when I was like 10 right when we started making videos, it would have been making videos. So like I I don't know if it gets much better than this, right? Well, that was a fun I love that.
We should do that annually. Like like Nate and Dan's annual catchup. That would be so I mean we obviously catch up more than annually for the audience. Quick pause in the action. If you're headed downtown for a Colts game, you've got to make a stop at St. Elmo Steakhouse or Harry and Izzy's before kickoff.
Both restaurants open early on Colts home game Sundays and you have special pregame menus that you can grab some food, a drink, and get yourself ready for the game. At St. Elmo, you've got the classics. Their famous shrimp cocktail, famemenan and wagu sliders, prime rib chili steaks, and obviously you can't go wrong with a bloody mary. Over at Harry and Izzy's, they're leaning into the breakfast side of game day. They've got breakfast fillet sliders, eggs and avocado, orange scones, plus plenty of cocktails to get the day started.
Harry opens at 10:00 a. m. and St. opens at 10:30, so you've got plenty of time to grab a bite before heading to Lucas Oil. Honestly, that's the way I do cold Sunday. Good food, a couple of drinks, and then head to the game.
Visit saintmo. com or harry andizzies. com to check out the free game menus and make your reservation. Now, let's get back into the episode. Uh, I do want to talk about what you guys have been up to. Sure.
So, for anyone that doesn't know, uh, Dan is founder of of Neighbor Serve and our companies have kind of like grown uh, relatively up beside each other for the last two years. Same building. Same building. You guys are which like dude being up top. What was I thinking? You guys such a great my landlord.
Yeah. But I get the we get the uh first floor. We don't call it the basement. We call it the first floor. Yeah. The mezzanine.
Um but you guys have been building something super incredible upstairs. You've grown your team. You've opened new markets. You've done a lot of of amazing work since the last time we caught up. So I got to know what's going on upstairs like what were I mean what were some big milestones that you guys have crossed? And I guess for anyone that doesn't know Dan, what is Neighbor Serve?
Yeah, sure. So, um, we built a local home service club, right? Um, I asked you about your brand crush. Like, like think about Costco, right? How absurd is it to think that somebody's going to pay me a membership fee to shop in my retail store, right? If if you told the world that, you'd be like, "What in the world?"
But they've they've got great products and awesome prices, a good experience, all dollars pizzas. Glorious. So, we we we I was a contractor for four years and uh it was it was a train wreck trying to find homeowners. I've been a homeowner trying to find contractors really hard and and so we built a home service club. Everything's optimized to get home projects done to boost local contractors that are trusted and and just, you know, help neighbors put their feet up and maybe work on their home a little less. Is this like the original model of Angie's List?
Oh, it's a good question. Like if I think back when I graduated college, I graduated IU in 2001 and and half my friends I feel like went and worked at Angie's List and that the the the impact that that that company had on Indie was profound. like it was exact target and sort of Angie since we you know both come from the tech scene. Um and then they they you know after they were acquired uh I don't know in 2015 or 17 or whatever that was um by IA and and rolled up with Home Advisor things changed a little bit and you know at the time I was building tech companies um and and and then I kind of got into home services like got back to my roots and was building home service companies and it just occurred to me that like it was still the internet has happened right it's kind of absurd to think that we can't just go online and find any contractor we need there's so much noise So, so, so we went out, we read every review, we did all this stuff, we triangulated on relationships, we found contractors and and and the the real difference I think between any of the ad I don't really know a lot about what Angie does today, but any of the ad platforms like the internet is dominated by Google and Angie and Thumbtac and the highest bidder and the highest bidder, right?
So, so when I go to search for a contractor, I find the company that paid the most money with the biggest advertising budget and marketing team. Uh, I'll give you an example like this morning. There's this there's a handyman that started with this three years ago, uh, Brian Woodward, and since he's focused only on dryer vent cleaning. So, I I searched Woodward Home Services, and the first three results that I saw on Google were other companies buying ads on his company name, right? These are national companies that are going to send a technician to your house that they've never even met. I'd much rather hire uh the guy that's at the, you know, sponsoring the Little League baseball team.
And so, so we're able to boost and help a guy like Brian get found. And then when neighbors use a guy like Brian like you used Nate I think uh was it specialty garage door like you had something wrong with your garage door and Andrew showed up right dude can I tell the story I told the story uh one this was maybe the most interesting and delight delightful customer service experiences I had ever had. So I call Andrew and he's like yes I can be out there I think it was either tomorrow or the same day. It was like, yeah, 1:00 and I get a text at like 12:55 maybe or maybe I get a a text at like 12:45 and he's like, "Hey, I'll be there in 15 minutes. I'm swinging through the gas station. Do you want anything to drink?"
And I'm like, "That's amazing." What? I dude he like he's like, "Oh, yeah. I get like" I'm like, "Uh, no. I'm I'm good. Thank you, though."
But he was going to bring me like a pop, right? I was like, "Yeah." He shows up. He's like, "Tell," we're just like chit cchatting, talking about the whole thing. He He The fix again. I don't know anything about garage doors.
Could have been $3,000. Could have been $1,000. Literally no idea what this thing cost, right? He's like, "I'm not going to try to like give you something you don't need. This spring is broken here. I don't need to replace the whole system.
I'm what I'm going to do is replace the spring, grease it all up, you'll be good to go. 300 bucks." Yeah. Yeah, I was like sold same day or next day like within 24 hours comes out tries to give me a soda from the gas like just ultimately just a good second generation like I think his uncle or his dad was in the garage door business and the company never finding him on Google, right? Yes. He came up in his uh uncle's garage door business and he like he's somebody like I would if I saw him out here this is the truth.
If I saw him out at like a bar I would buy him a beer. I that's my garage door guy. He rocks. Like, and that's the difference where it's like, granted, a lot of these employees live in the market, but when the when you're putting in your information and all of a sudden you get flooded with like 50 different phone calls, it's like not a great customer service experience versus they offer to buy you a pop at the gas station. Yep. So, I think I I I if I just like break that down, how is this different than any just going to find a contractor on the We've read all the reviews.
We've done all the stuff so homeowners don't have to, right? We've we've vetted the contractors. Homeowners pay us. Like, that's kind of weird, right? But homeowners, if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. And so, I'm not like taking your patio lead and selling that to 10 contractors.
Just understanding what what you guys have going on so I can match the right person. And and here's the here's the beautiful part of it. Like, this is what's this is what's really cool. Nine out of 10 neighbors are referred to us, right? Wow. So, we I don't know how to go find every neighbor in Indianapolis, but realtors and builders and employers, like those guys are referring and then we refer companies like Andrew or Brian.
And that's such a great experience for homeowners. Here, here's another part. 92% like 92% of our of our dollars from the neighbor side renew the next year, right? So, it's been really really hard to create that initial inertia, but now we have so many awesome contractors delivering incredible value that once like people use it, it's a no-brainer. But the hardest thing is nobody believes that we've actually vetted contractors. Yeah.
And so, you got you got to like try it to to believe it. So, like your experience of getting a pop in a garage door spring, like that's what we want to recruit. Well, and the cool part is you bring all of these people on the contractor side together to like, you know, network and like they have like a professional development group. You sit you're in the office like every like once a quarter they come in and there's 50 business owners in our building, right? We've got a 100 contractors. There's 50 of them that show up.
We we have some beers um connect them to each other because the guy that's installing putting greens like uh indie putting greens like you can get a putting green at Neighbor Surf. Uh but but Russ Green needs a carpet company because if he's doing an indoor putting green, he needs to meet the contractor of those carpets and he needs to know the accounting system those guys have. So like literally it's a club. Yeah. Like they're not just vendors and numbers and and that's you know that's near and dear to me like boosting entrepreneurs like Dan in 10 years if you've helped a lot of people take the leap and build you know start their company like that'd be amazing. Mhm.
Now the interesting piece is I remember talking to you of like this you you've done the venture route for anyone doesn't know like Dan went with I go digital sold to Exact Target you grew Sigster it sold to Terminus like you've done the ventureback tech product piece this is a little bit different it uh and and you originally the idea was to like raise a little bit of money and never have to raise again. You're right which might be a little bit different today. It is. So when we started we we still run this. We it's called home concier. Like it's literally hight touch.
We go into your home inventory everything and like it's one call for everything in your house. It's it's definitely a services company and not like software models and margins. But but that work taught us a lot. And then another thing happened, right? Like I kind of want I wanted a business to be profitable. Yeah.
Right. Like Right. That's how the real world works. Actually, this is interesting. 3 years ago profitability not cool. 2026 profitability cool again.
like the things that I wanted when I was looking for something to do. I wanted to be locally run. I want to build inside out and impact the things around me first and then figure out where to go. I wanted to be profitable and I wanted to be able to explain it to my mom, right? That was it. And and and so that was my original thought.
And people were like, "Oh, Dan, you know, is out of the tech community. He doesn't really believe in tech." And that wasn't it at all. I just wanted to run a little bit differently. But what happened was two things. The work that we did in home concierge was like, "Man, we could this we could be a lot more efficient now.
We know what to build, but man, that's going to cost a lot of money." But then AI happened and it was like, man, I'm tired of hacking WordPress and spreadsheets and everything else. And so it was like, man, we could we could really take advantage of this thing and how fast it is to build stuff now. Like if I had to rewind the clock going to build Igo Digital, we would have needed an engineer in a few weeks to build the entire thing. That took you how many years? I don't know.
We were like Eric Tobias like it's like five years, right? You could and a lot of engineers. This is so interesting because building software is no longer a moat. No. Correct. It doesn't matter.
But what we had built was incredible data. We had data about the home, data about all the jobs that had been done, data about our contractors. Yeah. And we have relationships. Those are the two things. AI can build relationships.
And so if I can use right again, how do I you how do you use get in to get where you want to go in life? Like we made up neighbor serve. How do we take care of people and get something out of the business that's meaning for us and meaningful for us and how do we use AI? Not not to like we aren't an AI first company. It's just a tool that we use to unlock the data and the relationships because those are hard things to uh replicate. Um so anyways, all that to be said, we went out and we raised money and we're actually in ending ending our seed round right now.
Like I talk about it super transparently because it's so scary for early entrepreneurs, but it's not the same sort of a thing. It's not like raise money forever. It's just we're building a marketplace and we need some density and we need the tools to be super efficient as a team to go out and deliver what our homeowners want so that it doesn't just become the next advertising platform to go find contractors. Yeah. Right. So, so it's um there's a method to the madness and it's it's definitely change.
Everything changed in the four years that I was building retaining walls and and uh running a dumpster company. everything in tech changed and it's a blast you know sort of being at the intersection of home services and technology like uh you know kind it's it's funny how the world works but like I was a recruiter for the first 10 years of my life and like the way that we say it now is hey we're recruiter for your home like you've got a job that needs done and somebody that wants to do it and our job is to make the best match not go back and surface the person that paid us the most money and bring them to the table right so we are literally a recruiter for your home and how do we use uh you know so that you can just sit there on your phone and you can text, hey, hey, hey, neighbor Serve, I need I need a garage door company that's making a funny noise and it's responding, but we're recording all of that and it's using all the knowledge that we have and at any point if you want to talk to a human on our team, we got a team of 11 upstairs that that are like dying down.
We've got humans. Yeah. Come home. So it's just that that's that's why like you know that the pendulum has swung from like all in on SAS tech to all in on home services to back in the middle where it's it's kind of a you know tech enabled services business. So talk about it started here in Indie where you you know have gone through met with vetted local contractors. Yep.
And now there's been a recent expansion. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, again, building inside out, like, let's figure out exactly what we need in Indianapolis. Uh, let's build that. Let's keep going in Indie.
Like, there's tons of runway in Indianapolis. But I think you had Tracy and Annie from Century 21 on on the show. So, uh, they hired us to vet and refer contractors for their agents and they have 50 agents in Bloomington because do you know what the number one reason that a pending home sale doesn't close? You know what it is? The inspection. The inspection, right?
And so just following those relationships to Bloomington, it's a it's a very safe way and and somewhere that's near and dear to me, too. It's a very safe way for us to learn everything that we need to do to build a home service club in any market in the country. Right? So, we're refining the playbook. We're building it and we'll launch it in Bloomington. Uh in two weeks, by the time the show airs, we will be live in Bloomington.
We've been quietly serving it for the last year, but now the platform and everything is in place. Our service team in Indie, we know what we need locally. And so that's a lot of fun to go out and build again in a local community. Um, you know, the the the same things that we learned in Indie. Wow. I'm excited.
Like I mean that that is it's interesting as you remember and look through what Angie was doing when they were opening new markets and how they were you know like mass marketing like they were spending a decent chunk to open up these new markets and then get adopted and you know you know uh meet all the local players and do all the things like it's fun. I mean to be an entrepreneur that go gets to go out there and okay like we've we've built this close to home. We're slowly expanding out, but we're not raising $10 million to go open 100 markets today, right? You know, and everyone we do, we learn and we can do the next one faster. Like, and we will just follow our relationships, whether it's a realer or like a big employer that that that brings it to their team. Like, there's there's so many ways to go out and find the demand.
And then here's the other side of the equation, like 2500 contractors we vetted since we started this thing. 2500 businesses. We've read all the reviews, did all the things. Now, now we we've got an agent that can go out, right, and and do 80% of the work for us so that Ed can come back and he can say, "Hey, here's the 20 things I wanted to look at. Here's the three areas where you might want to dig in and ask questions because on the onestar reviews, it looks like this business unit has unclear pricing. Ask them what they're doing to resolve it."
And so now we can triangulate on on relationships and do those things instead of just sitting there reading reviews. What is the biggest unlock that you need to have to go through this next stage? Yeah. What has to happen? The technology is continuing to make our team more efficient, but we cannot lose the personal service like the human relationship part of it. And so the techn is only there to help our team do things faster and and to get to the next market, we just got to continue to follow our relationships.
Um it's a pretty straightforward model. We spent two and a half years learning what to do. India is our focus and our mothership. And then it's just hey follow relationships when a new market makes sense like and and and and go out and serve neighbors in the same way we do today. in building a marketplace. I feel like it's so hard to grow two.
What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Like the neighbors, the work, the people, the contractors. Like, y how do you balance growing? I was talking to somebody in Cincinnati, a big a big employer, right? They've got a lot of employees. A lot of them are homeowners, right?
And and so it was just like, you know, hey, who are the contractors you love in Cincinnati? And I was like, well, you know, give us give us a couple months and we will come back to you with that answer, right? And and so we can go out and we can do that. But but it's a chicken or the egg thing. Do we go out and find the contractors and then go get the company or do we get the company and find the contractors? So, we we've got a couple of other examples like uh I don't know where where people need contractors.
We talk about realtors. Uh insurance claims agencies are really interesting. So, they need like foundation contractors, roofing contractors, plumbers, right? And they get asked all the time for that and they've got big claims teams and they want their teams all to recommend the right plumber, right? Or whatever or the right roofer is probably most common or restoration or fire or flood restoration. And so it's like some of these things are just coming to us and they're asking us for that stuff.
But then if an insurance company says, hey, I want to do this in five markets. It's like, well, you know, we can't run all of neighbor serve in five markets, but can we go find the top three contractors across these five to 10 categories really efficiently? Absolutely. And then that starts to seed what we need to go in and serve homeowners. So homeowners is like the business is called Neighbor Serve Nate because literally the homeowner, if it works for the homeowner, it works for everybody else. And so we're building this with our contractors, with our real estate partners, etc.
It's like we're not we're not building this. We're we're not building the neighbor club, right? We're not building Indies Home Service Club. We're building it with with those people. That's a lot of fun. What gets you excited?
When I see a guy, I don't know. I'm just going to go back to another story. There's a guy named Steven Moffet Mafet Construction here in Indianapolis. When he when he started with us, he was like, I don't know, I'll take a leap of faith three years ago, two and a half years ago. Um he was just him. Now he's got a team of four.
No way, dude. I remember meeting him and he like just got going. Amazing person like Yes. finished carpentry like and and and then also just like as as we were able to feed them the ideal jobs that they love to do, then they're able to specialize on those and deliver even better. And this is the piece that it's tough with small businesses like that. Like you spend so much time chasing any revenue, right?
or like pricing jobs and like you know like there will probably moments you show up at a job and you instantly know like this is not like this is just not gonna be a great fit and you like but you still go back you put a proposal together you send it over and then never hear from them again. Yes. Such a waste of time like so this this is huge like efficiency like if everybody wastes less time and we can get jobs done then contractors win homeowners less stress save money etc. So, like there are a couple examples, Nate, of of contractors that we've paused, right? A like I'll give it in in homeowners would be somebody went out of business. I'll I'll I'll skip the details on that, but they went out of business and the contractor had give given one of our homeowners a quote.
It was in the middle of a real estate transaction with Century 21. Uh things happen. They're small businesses. So, what happens is they call us in a panic because the thing's got to get quoted. Heldman from Heldman Exteriors, another local guy, Chitaard guy, is on it. Goes over there, fixes the problem.
Uh doesn't cost any more money. everything gets resolved and like just solving those problems like business somebody said this to me one time business is it was I think it was Patrick McInley who runs rehab medical here in Indie he he said business is problem solving and so even though that's stress like that's when that's when you earn your your stripes and and and people will be customers for life. Yeah, absolutely, man. I love that. The interesting piece is you talk about the indie tech scene. You talk about like the pendulum swinging from SAS, Martekch.
Like that was the world. That was my world. Yeah. And then you go all into dumpsters all like everything. We used to say from martekch to mulch tech cuz we had a mulch company. Yeah.
Right. Oh yeah. Yeah. The forget about the people forget about the mulch. And now you've like found a home somewhere in the middle there. Yeah.
when you look about like coming up I mean over the last 10 years the indie tech scene like you have been a key figure there like it feels like we're at an interesting time just in tech in Indianapolis like maybe I'm just out maybe I don't hear about a ton of like high-tech startups and whatnot like what what do you feel is going on indie tech yeah boy that's a there's a lot of layers to that question I don't pretend to know all the answers I know there's a lot of people working really hard to be the connective tissue of that tech scene It does feel a lot different than say it did in the you know exact target uh days. Um like talk to me about your time like you when your your foray really into like the heart of tech was when I go digital got acquired and I mean you were working at exact target for a while before then leaving going to doster. Yep. Yeah. That's right. So there was nine months there after the IGO acquisition but before Salesforce bought Exact Target and Exact Target was an incredible company but it was still a big business and I was eager to go start start the next thing.
Um and so yeah as as I was going through that though like just going back to the indie tech scene I I disappeared. We built a log cabin lived in Bloomington for a year. Um and then when I came back out it was like okay well I learned something. Wait that is also so crazy to think of. disappeared, built a log cabin, just like kind of went on sabbatical for a year. Well, it was such a wild fast ride and I I I I when when that sort of uh journey came to its conclusion again, I left uh Exact Target/Salesforce when I was making more money than I've ever made prior or since.
And that's fine. Like every now and then like you know, one of these companies will will have but like in the meantime like the salaries are always really small. You're paying yourself right. But my heart wasn't in it. My soul wasn't in it. And I also didn't know what to do next.
So, we needed some time to decompress with the family. Um, and and so that's what we did. But when I came back out, like I I I knew we wanted to start. It's like he comes out of the wilderness like after after a walkabout in Australia down in the jungle of Bloomington, the Hooser National Forest. I I I started I I knew I wanted to do tech one more time and there was a ton of people around. Like the first uh Sigster pitch was at Powder Keg.
Uh, I called Brad Whistler who was running something in Bloomington at the time. He runs Paragraph now and like I had an engineer helping me build the thing and like there's just so many resources and things available. I think they are all still there. I think you just got to search a little bit more. But if I were starting a tech company today, here would be my order of operations. Yeah.
Right. And I'd love to hear your your take. One, just get involved in like uh Techpoint, get involved in Powder K. Go meet all the people. Um, two, take your idea and don't tell like just turn it into something much more than an idea. build build the slide deck, build a prototype, call 50 customers and just say, "I don't have this yet, but if I build it, would you buy it?"
Like, do all those things? Then call Paragraph. I love Paragraph out of Bloomington. Like they are sort of what High Alpha was in my day. So High Alpha would help and sit side by side with me like a co-founder, like a venture studio. But I think because you were the first before they were officially a studio, before they spun down the studio, you were kind of like that and then like Lesson Lee was kind of the next one.
They rolled in lessonly and tinderbox and a couple things that the partners at high alpha had been working on. But Signster was the first thing to sort of start from like very very little to grow out of that. So that was such a cool journey and just sitting alongside Dorsy and Christian and Mike and Eric as as we built that was was a blast. But you know, Hyel is investing later stage now and and they're still an incredible part of the community. But like early stage, Paragraph sort of fills that void in Bloomington. They'll sit by you and be your co-founder, do your design and your brand and your early engineering.
So I love that. And then I would and then after I got my thing off the ground and I was going out to do the next thing, if I was raising money and doing that stuff, I would go talk to ground game. Like those guys are amazing. Almond Bra Yeah. Uh runs that locally. So So there is still a connective tissue here and you just got to get involved.
But mo most importantly like take your idea and progress it whether it's tech or not and go and and then just understand why you're building it. Like are you building it to be a profitable company? You building it to serve your family? Like what are you doing? and and just make sure whatever you pick kind of follows that path. Yeah, it's interesting.
After like we raised money for Bat Hats, which not tech, but like like having investors. After having investors, they were great. They were awesome. I don't really like having investors. Well, I will say like my the best thing about being an entrepreneur is you get to pick pick the people you work with. Yeah.
Uh and if if if it's harder to pick on a shoestring budget. Yeah. Luckily, I've like have found great people. Somehow we have really lucky people. Like we've been really blessed there. Uh that that sounded like not a dig at all.
Robert, I appreciate you as you edit this. Know that. But it's like a lot of times that is the thing where it's if you don't go out and raise money, you have to figure out how to make money, figure out how to be profitable. And sometimes that like figuring out your budget to Yeah. just grow and get talent in. Yeah.
There's there is a cost side of the equation that you can uh focus on as much as the revenue side, right? And so what I was getting at though is you can also pick you know your investors. Yeah. A bit. So my board is Aman bra and Connor Bert. Connor was my or fellow that we hired at I go digital.
And I told I told him I said this to everybody we'll all work for or fellows one day. And now now Connor's on my board. I mean isn't that crazy? Cuz you and Connor are all so similar. Like I feel like if he had his way he would go build he probably already has a cabin somewhere. He does and like where he goes and hunts and just like you know hangs out.
I was planning my board meeting and I was like hey guys when can we do this? And Connor's like well I'm going to Montana that next day for 10 days. I'm like good for you. Yeah. Which is so funny cuz he's like it's like you and him are similar in the ways like not tech like you at first you're like oh you know you might be like uh you might run a construction company. I could believe that.
And like no we've built these tech companies and exited from them but whatever. No, he's This is interesting though because I feel like you used to need to raise a ton of money for engineering. A ton of money to like build things. Y and it does seem as though you don't need you don't need a million dollars in engineering. No. Like you can build stuff.
Well, do you think that people can tell? cuz I think people are starting to be able to tell when a website when everything is built completely with AIT and I don't think they love it. Like I think that it's like you need to to use AI but not abuse AI. Yeah. Yeah. That that's really well said.
Like it's one of those things like on the AI front like uh there's a book called The Maniac about the the start of AI and he's got a quote in here and his quote is essentially there is no cure for progress, right? Like it is here. I don't really like it. I'd rather be sitting in a cabin in the woods like you know doing whatever. Like I'd still be working. Like I would absolutely be working but like technology is here and like how do we use that tool?
It can be used for good or evil or you know uh profit or loss or whatever. Yeah. Or you can choose to like put your head in the sand and not like and you just watch it all run by you. Yeah. But when it all happened and we were building a services company and then all of a sudden these things were happening that could make my team super efficient. We go from serving a 50 home concier clients to 100 per rep and with a better service result.
And and our team is like here's the thing. Here's here's here's the key Nate. We build everything for our home concier team first and then they use it and what works really really well they work out all the kinks then we deploy that right so for for more of a DIY version to our clients because it's it it's a mess and it's got to be authentic and at any point you've got a button like a lifeline to a human we have come to kind of the the end of the show here where we talk all things Indiana love it um so I want to know obviously I mean anyone who's listened this far in episode knows you love Bloomington, but is there another underrated city in Indiana that you love? You know where the best English pub in Indiana is? I don't even I don't know if I've been to an English pub like Chattam Tap. Is that an English pub?
Gas City, Indiana. Oh, this is uh Payes. Pays. Okay. The best English pub. Yeah.
So, I don't know. Another city that I love. Uh wait, why when were you at Pays? I was driving back from Detroit with uh Carrie Jones, my my business partner. And uh there's just this like desolate area of whatever the outer belt of of Fort Wayne is where there's no restaurants at all. And then there's just a giant billboard for for pains once you get outside.
There's some bangers and mash and some fish and chips. Some soup and a grilled cheese. Yeah. Okay. And maybe maybe TBD. Okay, that's a good one.
All right. I haven't I don't know much about the rest of Gas City, but people people rave about Pays. Uh they say like, "Yeah, everything they have there is pretty good." Yeah. Um, what is the coolest story of a contractor from Neighbors? Like is there like one story where you're like this is just this this is living the dream and you know growing entrepreneurship and being part of it?
a a real estate agent named Connie Hill um called I guess it was a week or two ago when when everything was flooding and she had a client that called like you had who had bought a house two or three years ago and she's like hey my basement is flooding and I can't get anybody even answer their phone and so you know Conniey's like hey guys what do we do who do we send over there and so there's company called Guardian Angel Restoration which is really aptly named in this scenario and and so they were over there same day to get the basement dried out their restoration business fly or flood uh damage. Um I mean that happens every day. Uh but but in that case when somebody's like literally their their home is at jeopardy like and and it's hard to and it's no no knock on the other contractors like everybody's super busy. So like how do we how do we have a lifeline to get somebody out to help? But and it's different though.
It's it's like when you get a personal introduction uh for a job. Like you can apply quick apply through the front door through LinkedIn, fill out the job application and like hope your resume sticks out, right? Or you have someone that you know that knows the CEO or whatever like makes an introduction and you get them through the side and they're like they're going to they're going to like take care of you. When you think about a realtor, like that's a big value in a realer. It's not necessarily you can find a home anywhere, but it's the realer that has the network that helps you navigate the deal and is willing to help you afterwards and and builds that relationship. Um, yeah, maybe my new one will be uh Andrew, you know, offering to get our clients a pop on the way to That guy rules.
I mean, if you have if you are in the greater Indianapolis area and you have garage door troubles, you want fair pricing, honest pricing, and a cold pop and a cold. What's I don't even know what I just know is Andrew. What's his company called? Uh, specialty garage doors. Specialty garage doors. It's spectacular.
You look it up. He's the angel of garage doors. Oh, dude. I'm going to start doing that. Hey, I'm coming on site to uh film content for you. Do you uh need a need a soda?
Yeah. Need a Coke? I love it. As you continue to grow, where do you think needs a neighbor serve hub next? Yeah. Fort Wayne, Cincinnati, Louisville.
You know, I kind of think back to my my days of growing the staffing business with the 811 guys and I got open offices in Nashville and Cincinnati and having young young employees that are super motivated and want to go take the process to a new city, like that was a lot of fun. So, I can't believe you proximity matters. How old were you? Like 25. Well, here actually this is weird. Yeah.
24 four three I can't remember. We have an employee. He's a Hooser and we're going to get him back to Indiana. His name is Jordan Carlson. And he he is our full-time engineer, but he is based in Orange County, California. And his best buddy Stu, who's a real estate agent, moved out there.
And and Stu is selling like Manny Machado's house. Dang. And so like Jordan and Stu are like, "Hey, we got to have neighbor servant. Ste lives in San Diego. San Diego. So I was like, you know, that that would be that but that's interesting because it's already again built in relationships and it connects us to Jordan a little bit more, but I'm hoping we can we can suck Jordan back in.
Dude, that is so there's there's those opportunities that keep popping. But uh we're we're super focused and we just want to want to make sure we we we stay there. I just can't imagine them sending 23 24 year old Dan out to Right. You're now our boots on the ground in Nashville. In between Cincy and Nashville, I got married and and Jenny who was spending the time with me in Cincinnati. lived in the same building where my office was and like like literally in the same building.
Same building. I found the office and the landlord was like, "Well, where are you going to live?" I was like, "I don't know." And he walked across the hallway and opened up a door. So, I lived in there and Jenny was just absolutely mortified at like what what I was I was out and about as a 20-year-old in a Tuesday night and she was teaching school. And so, it was just like she was like, "What are you does is this what you do on Tuesdays?"
You're like stumbling back in like but I was at my desk, you know, 50 ft away at 7 a. m. every day. Yeah. roll out. I get a cup of coffee.
It's like, hold on, I got to run home real quick. 2 minutes later, you're still there, bud. I know. I might have to that might have to put a a bedroom upstairs and I'll never leave. Just live stream for 24 hours a day. Yes.
Um, this next question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at homejcart. com. My question for you, Dan, why do you call Indiana home? Yeah, great question.
people. Yeah. There's no mountains, there's no oceans. Uh but when like for instance starting a company I any the biggest company in Indianapolis, you can find somebody that will talk to you. Um it it it's it's pretty simple people. Now I believe we've had you answer these questions before, but we're going to we're going to refresh them up a little bit.
We're going to see what you pull out today cuz Dan is like a you know like a magician. He can pull a rabbit out of a hat, right? So uh this is your opportunity to shed some light on a part of the state that more people need to be talking about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I'm just going to go Lake Monroe. I uh grab a kayak.
Um throw it in. Uh the Peninsula Trail is my favorite hiking trail. The Peninsula Trail. Yeah. It's It's not in Hooser National or anything like uh it is just south on 446. There's a little parking lot in the back of a neighborhood and it just goes out and literally on both sides you is Lake Monroe and you know, Eagles and fishing and all that kind of stuff.
The Pen. That's a good one. So the Peninsula Trail at Lake Monroe. Yep. That's a good one. Yeah.
Uh we do. So Dan is on a side quest too to find the best dive bar in Indiana. Oh yeah. I was at a dive bar when I texted you. Yeah. I know.
Where were you at? I was at a bar called GG's. It's the closest it's an equidistant from myself and my best bud Mike Davis who is my cohort in the dive bar experience. Yeah. They're going to go like get dive bar. That's going to be their their page.
Well, where is GG's at? Uh 71st in Benford. Wow. Oh, it's not GG. Yeah. Yeah.
Wow. GG's. There you go. That is a That's Yeah, don't don't everybody go there and ruin it. Don't ruin GG's for Dan, please. Uh, okay.
Next. This is where we get ideas for guests and we get to learn about other people that you're meeting through whether it's through neighbor or ground game, paragraph, like all these different hooers that are doing cool things. Who's a hooer we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. I sent this person to you um and I hope they they become a guest on your podcast, but a guy named Jay Bear. Yeah.
J Bear rules. So Jay Bear was like the number one marketing mind. I don't know, writing books, everything else. Uh and then he totally flipped and and turned his marketing skills into becoming the world's number one tequila influencer. Yes. And he picked picked picked Indiana.
He could have picked anywhere to go live. He and his wife were living in Arizona and they picked Indiana. And that guy uh he's a pillar down in Bloomington these days. Yeah. He's coming on I believe this month or next month. I hope I didn't ruin it.
Stay tuned. No, no, no. It'll be great. Stay tuned. You're going to hear the episode cuz he also did Convert Kit. Oh, Convince and Convert.
Convince and Convert was like an agency that he ran. Yes. He like And he wrote lots of marketing books. Yeah. Yeah. Help First, I think was the name of one of his books, which is a core value for us.
Amen. Uh that's a good one. I love that. Uh okay, final question, Dan. Yeah, this is a new one. I don't think you've you've answered this one.
Okay. It's been a wild couple of years to be in the state of Indiana from I mean from the sports side of things, you talk about the Pacers, you talk about the Fever, you talk about your uh beloved Indiana Hooers. Just talk about the city of Indianapolis being largely in the limelight. Like a lot of like NBA Allstar, all these things are happening. Yeah. When you think about it, when you close your eyes and think about what it means to be a Hooser, what is your favorite Indiana memory?
Being at a concert at at Deer Creek. I'm still calling it Deer Creek. It will always be Deer Creek. Watching the sun go down. This is a Tom Petty concert. Um, and and at some point, you know, thunderstorms roll in, power goes out for a minute, and the entire audience, I don't even remember the song, but the entire audience, everybody knows all the words to Tom Petty.
The entire audience continues like for like 10 seconds during this, you know, sound going down and it was, dude, you're the second person to talk about that exact concert. No kidding. In like a month. There's there's nothing more hooser though than when when you're driving to Deer Creek and there's the corn fields and like there's a bunch of traffic and somebody's jumping out of the car to go, you know, use the restroom in the corn fields. Like absolutely like that's just vintage Hooser, dude. That is this Tom Petty show people.
Yeah, that is like serious ball knowledge. I love it. Dan, it is always a pleasure to catch up. This has been such a fun episode. Thank you. Congrats on what you built.
This is a blast. I loved interviewing you. Thank you for being a great mentor. Thank you for being a great uh tenant for everything. Yeah, I don't know. I'm sure.
Um it's been super fun to continue building. I'm excited to come back and listen to this episode in 10 years. That's right. Hopefully, we have just crushed what we what we set out to do. I know no matter what we're what we're doing, it's going to be hopefully beneficial to all listeners and all Hoosiers and people beyond there. Uh it's been super fun and and I'm excited to keep going.
Yeah, I appreciate you, Nate. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoover State great. We'll see you next time here on Get